Vacation Roundup: Rhode Island

My parents' house in RI is really funny - it has a checkered past. The original owner - long gone - was a felon, so there are some locks in bizarre places (the closet in the loft, for example). It's also a bit of an '80s time capsule - the wallpaper is unbelievable. It has good bones, though, and it's in a great area with a pool and easy access to a long and v. flat bike path. Sign me up.

After the carousel on Monday night, we rode our bikes back down the path to Del's, for their lemonadey-icey stuff. "A Rhode Island Institution," according to them, anyway. Beware - the site has lots of fun sounds... My dad filmed my mom and me eating the Del's - it's hysterical.



After we'd recovered from the lemonade, we went out for seafood. From what we can tell, Rhode Islanders LOVE to eat, and they especially love seafood. I had a big ol' lobster, the likes of which I hadn't seen since Colby. And yes, I will forever be spoiled for lobster having gone to college in Maine. With $9.99 lobster nights at the restaurant down the street...

Here I am...winning.


On Tuesday, my roomie C came to visit - it was GREAT to see her again after her visit to Stowmarket. She recaps the day pretty completely on her blog. I LOVED seeing her and being tourists for the day.


When we were walking through one of the little towns that we visited, we saw these carvings on the porch from across the street. They looked so pretty - but on closer inspection they appeared to ALL be Freemasons' symbols... Who knows.


On Wednesday (our last day in RI), we lounged around, went to the pool, and ate. Lots. Fabulous diner food for breakfast, a stuffie (some strange RI twist on the stuffed clam) for lunch, and the most incredible seafood jambalaya for dinner.

Wow - I really did photograph everything I ate over the vacation...




More tomorrow!

Quiet Day

I was trying to decide what to do today, regarding the post. I'm going to hold off on the vacation recap until tomorrow- I still have trouble with things with a date stamp of September 11.

So, today, instead, parts of two songs that the Indigo Girls wrote.

They're sending soldiers to distant places
X's and O's on someone's drawing board
Like green and plastic but with human faces
And they want to tell you it's a merciful sword
But with all the blood newly dried in the desert
Can we not fertilize the land with something else
There is no nation by god exempted
Lay down your weapons and love your neighbor as yourself
-Our Deliverance, 2002

When you march stand up straight.
When you fill the world with hate
Step in time with your kind and
Let it ring

When you speak against me
Would you bring your family
Say it loud pass it down and
Let it ring

Let it ring to Jesus 'cause he sure'd be proud of you
You made fear an institution and it got the best of you
Let it ring in the name of the one that set you free
Let it ring

As I wander through this valley
In the shadow of my doubting
I will not be discounted
So let it ring

You can cite the need for wars
Call us infidels or whores
Either way we'll be your neighbor
So let it ring

Let it ring
in the name of the man that set you free
Let it ring

And the strife will make me stronger
As my maker leads me onward
I'll be marching in that number
So let it ring

I'm gonna let it ring to Jesus
Cause I know he loves me too
And I get down on my knees and I pray the same as you
Let it ring, let it ring
'Cause one day we'll all be free
-Let It Ring (Amy Ray), 2005

Vacation Roundup: Wedding, NYC

I'm back in the UK...I didn't intend to take such a long blogging break but it was tricky to find time and sort out pictures without my Mac.

Anywho, still on my camera from before the trip to NY, a picture of the stepson and my niece rowing a boat. They managed to coordinate enough so that we didn't go in circles, although we were definitely wobbling...


Then, Friday night, our 'drinking club with a reading problem' got together in Andrea's fab new apartment. We hadn't all gotten together in ages, and it was very entertaining. My mom has a tshirt: "What happens with the girlfriends, stays with the girlfriends." Haha.


Then on Sunday I went to the wedding - it was the first one I'd been to for 2 years that I wasn't in (including ours), and I have to say it was SO relaxing. The wedding was great, with lots of fun people and fabulous music and I didn't have to wear anything specific or talk to anyone or be in any pictures or ANYTHING. Not to say that I haven't loved being in weddings, but they're a lot of work! So here was the setting (gorgeous):

And the bride & groom (gorgeous, again!):


Then, on Labor Day, I zipped up to RI to my parents' house, where I had the most relaxing 3 days I can remember. We went to a carousel on the first afternoon, via the bike path behind my parents' house. It's one of the last in the country where you can try and catch the rings as you ride around and then throw them into a target - I had the best time! My dad made a video - I'm not sure if it'll make it on to youtube but if it does, I'll post it.


To be continued...

Travels, Part II

After a fun but exhausting weekend up in Durham, I'm off to NY tomorrow. We did lots of horsey things (riding on the cart, which was AWESOME, watching some cross-country stuff), labrador-y things, and various other stuff. We got home last night, did 3 loads of laundry (thank you, sunny day today), and now I'm all packed for NY.

I'll be there for 10 days - one of my all-time-favourite people is getting married this weekend, and then I'll be in RI for a few days with the 'rents. I'm looking forward to NOT thinking about work, work, or work.

I had two small annoying things today, which put me in a bit of a funk this afternoon. First, our long-awaited dentist appointments arrived (no weekend/late hours, and the practice is near where John used to live, so it's not convenient at ALL). I'd scheduled a cleaning/checkup/handover appointment for both of us. I went up for my appointment, where the doctor made a few notes, asked me a few questions, poked around and counted my teeth, took an x-ray and then said, OK, well if you make yourself another appointment we can sort out giving you a checkup and a cleaning and fitting you for a mouth guard. "Wait a minute," I said, "THIS is my appointment. Please do the cleaning now. I scheduled it during my vacation and arranged flights to NYC around it."

"Oh no, we can't do the cleaning today - you'll need another appointment for that." AAAAAAHHHHHHHH! So John and I have appointments in October (the soonest they could do) and we'll both have to take the day off. Apparently this dentist is an old family friend so I couldn't get annoyed at him. I AM going to mention it to the in-laws, though. NOT cool. We PAY for this shit?

Oh, and my second setback? The long-awaited tomatoes that have been green since April have ripened and turned red. Fabulous, right? NO. They taste like winter tomatoes from the supermarket. You know, all dry and mealy and completely flavorless. Ugh. I don't know what's the matter with them, but there are hundreds that are just about to ripen and if they taste like the ones I had today they're going straight in the compost bin. They're 'bush' tomatoes, rather than the stalky kind, but that shouldn't have made any difference. I've never tasted a home-grown tomato that was anything other than delicious - I don't know what's happened.

OK, rant over. I need a vacation.

Vacation!

Well, it's official - I know have 2 weeks off from work. Eek. I realized that I've never taken two whole weeks at once before - it's always been a week here or a few days there. I'm sure they'll be fine without me - I'm not one of those people who compulsively checks email or leaves rambling auto-responses giving details of their cell phone(s), personal emails, Skype names (!? - I had one of those today), other phones, and a detailed itinerary. Nope. If they need to find me, they will.

My dad has been scanning a lot of slides from his epic collection - here's a picture of me at the piano. Who knew that I'd end up in the music biz? (Well, maybe my parents did...)


We're going to see John's brother for a few days - it's always nice to just get away from stuff and veg at their house. Hopefully the sun will come out for at least part of the time we're there - it's been raining and COLD here for a solid week. Ugh.

John made a gorgeous dinner tonight - fresh cherry tomatoes from his mom's garden, roasted with garlic, onion and a chili, and then he added mushrooms and courgettes and some oregano and paprika. We had it over pasta and it was SO GOOD. I'll miss it when we go back to work and I don't have a full-time chef...

I heard a really funny term on the radio tonight while I was driving home (yes, the car is back!). It refers to someone who is slavishly devoted to their GPS (or Sat-Nav as it's known here), to the exclusion of all rational thought and external stimuli. The term? SatChav. I love it. Travis (my F-i-L) is the poster child SatChav.

My personal chef

The hubby is on vacation this week (I'm off next week and the week after) and he's been cooking every night. We also have the small boy, so John's been making reasonably adventurous stuff but nothing too crazy. Monday night - a glorious chickpea curry from *scratch* - not even the curry paste that I use. He mixed all the spices and started from there. It was SO good. Last night we had roasted veggies with penne, and tonight he made paella. I could get used to having a house-husband! I think tomorrow he's making veggie chili and has planned some extravagant potato-bake thing for Friday. Mmm.

I've been having some transportation adventures this week, as our car was out of commission for a few days (it's back as of this afternoon). As the Brits will know, the weather here has been absolutely appalling - gray, cold and rainy. Ugh. So getting up at 5:30 to walk to the 7:08 train (in the rain) and then walk up-hill for half an hour (still raining) in Bury hasn't exactly been my favourite thing. Then more rainy walks back in the other direction, although at least once I get home I can take a hot shower and put on my fleece pants (YES, in August) and a hoodie. Brrrr. Fred & George (the duck slippers) have been getting a lot of use this summer - they're usually in the closet from May through September.

Woah, I've nearly made it 'til 10pm - I've been in bed at 9 all week. ::yawn:: Ok, I'm not going to be a hero. At least I've only got 2 more days of the train (and house-husband is DRIVING me to the station tomorrow morning - what decadence)!

Phew

It's been an insane week. John left on Sunday afternoon for a business trip and came back on Wednesday. I've been going flat-out at work - 8 to 6 every day with half an hour at lunch to inhale my sandwich. Things are starting to get under control, which is a relief. It's funny...when I started the new job 3 weeks ago, I didn't give myself the same 'new job allowance' - where I expect to be tired all the time, really frustrated at all the new info, etc - because I was still sitting in the same office. Different desk, but the same room. Then it hit me this week - it's still a NEW job, filled with things that I don't know. My mom always maintains that it takes a month to get to the point where you can pretty much do stuff and 6 months to get good at all of it. A month puts me at the end of next week, at which point I'm going on vacation for 2 weeks. Seemed like a good idea when I was planning it - not so much now.

Last Saturday I got a package from Kristen. John and I had helped her with her website (mostly proof-reading and stuff). She's selling really clever wine tags - check them out at Tag-it.biz. She's also the one who made the notebooks that I gave Andrea and my mom for their birthdays. I'd been meaning to order one for myself but I have kind of a notebook fetish and have some unwritten-in-ones that I kept thinking I should use up first. Anyway, she mentioned that she'd send me 'a little something' as a thank-you.

'A little something' included this:


And these (pardon the picture - ick):


And, best of all, my very own mini-Taylor book.


With a starfish clasp:


It's gorgeous. I'm almost done with my current moleskine and then I'm going to transfer all the important stuff over to the new book and carry on. I can't wait - I keep thinking of things that don't really need to go in the moleskine, just so I can finish it and start on the new book.

I'm also obsessed with the wine tags on 'tag-it' - I think they're SO clever and we're always bringing bottles of wine to people. The only problem now is that when I BRING the wine, I'm so excited about the tags that I have to tell everyone about them. Oh, and there were more that were in the original package but I gave a pack to my friend Sandy, who has similar wine-giving requirements. She got all excited...woohoo!

So after the zany, care-package-filled week, we went over to our friends' house for dinner last night and had a bbq. American wife, brit (tech-y) husband. Just like us. It was great to see them and catch up.

And this morning, I was so inspired by how pretty my breakfast looked that I had to take a picture. Lucky you.

Reading in the back yard

Baby StowmarKate

My dad has been scanning lots of old photos - here's one he sent me from when I was v. little. We always called these 'swimmies'...most of the kids that I know now call them 'floaties'. I definitely was more in the swimming than the floating camp...



I somehow got myself roped into editing the Bury Bach Choir newsletter and I've been completely avoiding it. I sent out a mass email soliciting submissions and I've had quite a few, which is good news. The bad news is that I'm creating it in Scribus, which is an open-source program for linux. Not only do I not really know how to edit a newsletter, the only designing I've done until now has been in Microsoft Publisher. Lovely. Supposedly Scribus is 'a lot like Quark', which doesn't really help me. I need an open-source publishing app for non-designers like me. Or, I need to stop saying yes to things that I don't really know how to do. Either one would work.

Colliding worlds

My roomie C found this:

Not only is it the HP trio, but Rupert Grint's tshirt is the same as the poster that we have in our living room (still waiting to be hung on the wall, though). ::swooon::

Oh, and this is StowmarKate a la Simpson.

BBQ fiend

I'm a bbq fiend - I attended not 1 but 2 yesterday. The first one was for the boys, at our house - John's buddies came round for the day and I made them lunch. We fired up the grill with some organic charcoal from the farm shop (it burns really well and has an awesome flavor) and made red curry chicken kebabs. I had some Thai Chili sauce as well - it really improved it. Oh, and I used low-fat coconut milk instead because I can't stand the regular stuff - it's always so gloopy.

Here's the BBC Good Food's pic - ours didn't have the individual grill marks on the piece of chicken - my personal food stylist is on vacation. Otherwise, that was pretty much it.


On to the second bbq, at a friend's house - there were some work-y people and lots (more) fab food. We all sat outside the whole time - it's finally starting to feel like summer.

Google maps

We live out in the country. I'm not disputing that. Suffolk is a v. rural county and is known for sausages and sheep. But really, Google Earth needs to do some updating. Why, you ask?

Well, our house is new. But not THAT new. And we're not the only ones up here. But when you type our postcode into google maps, what image do you get?


Maybe that's why my garden is doing so well...

Growing

The honeysuckle in the backyard (thanks, Mom & Dad!) has been threatening to flower since the weekend, and went I went out after dinner to water the tomatoes (green but getting bigger), I noticed that there were some open flowers. They smell SO good. And there are about 50 more buds on the plant - it's going to smell great this weekend.


Our border plants are also really psyched about life. Here they are the day they were planted:




And here they are now:


Oh, and Freda brought us some lavender from her garden - it's not the best picture but you should be able to imagine how fantastic it smells...

I've been going flat-out at work - one of the women I work with is on vacation and the other has switched departments. My boss is being really supportive, though, and I LOVE having the office to myself. Someone came in yesterday and said I looked lonely, and then said, "But who do you talk to?" Umm...I'm working? And if I really need to talk to someone, I can talk to myself. Besides, there's an office full of people across the hall and my boss is 2 offices down. The days have flown by - I've been super busy and I feel like I'm cramming my brain full of all the new info.

BBQ

Well, the weather held and we had lots of family over on Sunday. John's parents, his brother's wife and daughter, his brother's wife's sister and her family. As my parents would say, the in-laws and the out-laws.

Anyway, we parked the kids outside on the picnic blanket while we had a v. civilized lunch at the kitchen table. And then all went to the playground, where we pushed the kids (boys 9 & 10, girls 11 & 12 - the miracles of cousins!) on the swings. I'm SO sore today - there's a huge seesaw/swing thing that provoked cries of FASTER! HIGHER!!. And now my arms and legs (?!) are sore. But the kids had a rip-roaring time. As did the grownups, I have to say.

It's raining again

Which means we have more rainbows than we know what to do with.

Here are two pictures, taken out the back window, five minutes apart. Crazy English weather. We've truly had the most appalling summer - it's been cold and rainy since mid-May. I haven't worn shorts ONCE and we still have our spring/fall duvet on the bed. And Moose (the stuffed moose) is wearing his antler-muffs still.



I'm still feeling v. calm about Harry Potter, but I'm reluctant to post about it here because I know a lot of people haven't finished yet. So if you want to discuss, email me, otherwise I'll post about it in a few weeks.

It's also looking like my plans to go to NY at Christmas might change, but nothing's final yet so I'm being really cautious. I should know in a couple of days, though.

There's also a lot of crazy stuff going on at work - it seems like one of those months where people are moving all over the place - at our suppliers, with our customers, and within the company. I'll have to ask Michelle (my astrologically inclined buddy) if there's something planetary that's causing all the upheaval.

All done

Well, I've finished the book. Last night at about 9:30, as a matter of fact. I've been trying to ponder what to post here and I'm going to avoid spoilers for a bit.

Apparently I was not the only person annoyed by the HP review in the New York times - they got thousands of letters from angry people. I still think while what they did was technically legal, it was morally wrong. One of the commenters suggested submitting it to Randy Cohen (The Ethicist from the Sunday Times Magazine) - I think it's a great idea.

We went out for a curry with Ian & Caroline on Friday night in Ipswich - we'd reserved our books so we figured that it wouldn't be too bad of a line at Waterstones. Er, yeah, we were wrong. Not only was there a HUGE line of people, going all the way down a v. long block and around several corners, we were only about 150 metres away from the store and we were in line for almost 2 hours after midnight. They only had 3 registers open and it was taking forever. And it was FREEZING cold - I had to put my fleece on over my HP shirt. We were, however, waiting next to a v. nice college student who kept us entertained.

Here they are:


And here's the line:


And here we are WITH OUR BOOKS!


We staggered back to the house, where I read the first chapter and tumbled in to bed. I woke up at 6:30 with the sun streaming in to our room, and started from the beginning again. We left at 9, had the best Little Chef breakfast I've ever had, and then came home, showered, and settled in. John was upstairs on the bed, and I was downstairs on the couch. I had two small interruptions to hang washing on the line, and was about 3/4 of the way through when we left for a bbq at my friend's house.

She's American, married to an Air Force navigator, and we were the only civilians at the party. It was fun, though. We had Bratwurst (she's from Minnesota) and lots of American food from the base. John thought it was all very strange.

We got home about 8, and I read straight through until 9:30. John read until about midnight, and then woke up at 7 this morning to finish.

I thought it was EXTREMELY good, and while I'm definitely feeling HP withdrawal, it's much more of a peaceful feeling than with any of the previous books.

NYT Harry Potter review

Somehow, the New York Times bought a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at a store in New York City. Not sure how, but whatever.

They then read the book, wrote a review, and posted it. Fine, except nobody's supposed to get the book AT ALL until tomorrow night at midnight. And their review included SPOILERS. Which I read, by accident. And then tried my best to un-read, but it doesn't work like that. I'm not linking to it here - if you desperately want to read it, you'll be able to find it.

I am NOT a happy bunny. They're mean.

Dr Who Cake

The boys brought a tardis cake when they came round tonight - I loved it so much I had to take a picture. And post it.


It's funny, when I was a kid, we never watched Dr. Who. I remember it randomly being on TV and it being WAAY too scary for me, so then when I arrived here I didn't really want to watch it. It actually kicked off when C was here, and I figured it was a v. british thing to do with our Saturday evening. It was the first of a v. compelling 2-parter and that was it. I was sucked in. Now they're on hiatus for the summer (although I missed all the episodes from the autumn, so it's not too bad). I'm going through David Tennant withdrawal.

Random quiz (Wikipedia/IMDB NOT allowed): why ELSE might I find David Tennant compelling? (Other than the fact that he's fab as the Doctor and quite easy on the eyes...)

John's on a business trip tomorrow night, so I'm going to be having artichokes for dinner (he finds them too prickly but I LOVE them). I can't find my mom's recipe for the sauce so I'm going to have to ask her again...oh well.

Curry on a Monday?

As planned, I made this recipe. It was a HUGE hit - both John and I really loved it. It was super easy and I'll definitely be making it again soon.

From BBC Good Food: Prawn Curry In A Hurry

* 2 tbsp curry paste (they recommend Patak's Original Balti curry paste)
* 1 onion, finely sliced
* 200g large raw or cooked prawns, defrosted if frozen
* 400g can chopped tomatoes with garlic (I sauteed the garlic with the onions and just used regular tomatoes)
* large bunch coriander, leaves and stalks chopped

Serves 2
Prep 5 mins
Ready in 15 minutes

Drizzle some oil from the curry paste jar into a wok or large frying pan, gently heat, then add the onion. Sizzle over a low heat for 4 mins until the onion softens, then stir in the paste and cook for a few mins longer. Stir in the prawns and tomatoes, then bring to a simmer. If using raw prawns, simmer until they have changed colour and are cooked through. Season, if you like, then add the coriander just before serving with boiled rice and naan bread.

It was spicy and really tasty. And the rice was done before the dinner was - it was a fast one.

I also finished reading The Friday Night Knitting Club - it was a fun New York chick-lit book that was deeper than I was expecting it to be. Not Shakespeare, but enjoyable. I can't remember whose blog I saw it on, but thanks! Now the big internal struggle is about whether or not I have time to (start and) finish HP6 before Friday night...

Harry Potter weekend No.1 (of 2)

Our garden has suddenly exploded in a riot of colo(u)r. Here's an arial view of our hanging basket (planted with the M-i-L) and the begonias that we planted with Mom & Dad.

It was a glorious afternoon - we had laundry dancing on the line and I sat out in the back yard and read my book. We've had a bumper crop of coriander, so John and I are going to have a shrimp curry tomorrow to see if we can use some of it up.

Last night we had a bbq with F & T - we spent some time shooting at a tin can in the back yard. John says that the only time he's ever seen his father miss anything was when they were trying to shoot a rabbit in the dark (the garden was overrun with them) and John was shining a flashlight on the rabbit.



We stopped on the way home to take some pictures - the sunset was glorious.


So, Harry Potter, you ask? Indeed. We saw the movie yesterday morning, and I loved it. I really like OOtP anyway (although I tend to stop right before they get in to the Dept of Mysteries - I can't bring myself to read any further). The writing was the best so far - it condensed the book perfectly, removing the extraneous characters and plot lines, without adding any other random filler. Luna was perfect, Umbridge was deliciously awful (and her office was PERFECT), and the Room Of Requirement was only missing a few pillows. I agree with C about how anything that was added sounded like it was written by JK. And I LOVED the scene where Harry was talking to Dumbledore about the prophecy... "You mean, in the end, one of us has to kill the other?" Yup, Harry, and that's NEXT WEEK!!! Oh, and when did Daniel Radcliffe get to be so cute? I know he's 17, but still. Oh, and I'm going to get my 'the end' theory out now, so if you don't care, go read the Times or something.

Snape will help Harry (on purpose or not, I don't know) kill Voldemort. I think this has to happen, although seeing OOtP again calls his loyalty into question again. He DID tell the others that "He's got Padfoot, in the place where it's hidden," but that could still be part of his double-agentness.

I may have to steal HBP from James' room and reread it this week...

London II

Sunday in London was not quite as whirlwind as Saturday, but it was still a really fun day. I had a quick breakfast (chocolate croissant and cappuccino) at Bar Italia, then headed down to Sloane Square to go check out the General Trading Company.

On the way, I bought an Oyster card, as recommended by my parents' friend Charles. It's basically a cross between a Metrocard and an E-ZPass (for the newyawkers in attendance). For people like me, it's great - it's a prepaid card that adds up how many rides I've taken in a day and charges me for the cheapest combination. Neat! And yes, the government can track where I go and when...oh well. I've now waited in my last line at an underground station (at least to buy a ticket...)

Anyway, GTC didn't open until 12 noon (it was Sunday, in England, remember?) and since Peter Jones (part of John Lewis) opened at 11, in I went. I tested out some patio chairs and tables, sat on 'our' couch (yet to be ordered), and was on my way.

I had plans to meet up with Michelle but we hadn't figured out where - we ended up going to Greenwich, which was really fun. I took the Docklands Light Railway out (without realising I had to pay before I got on the train - oops!), and walked around for a while.

I read some more of The Nine Tailors (a Dorothy Sayers murder mystery about bell ringing in East Anglia, recommended by mom) while sitting in the park in front of the maritime buildings - it was so wonderful to be outside in the sun after all the rain we've had.

Michelle and I had a REALLY yummy lunch, walked around the markets for a while, saw these crazy puppets in a parade, and then climbed to the top of the hill to check out the observatory.





And in honor of Harry Potter, I found this 'golden snitch'-esque weathervane at the top of one of the observatory buildings. Love it.


I was then so comprehensively exhausted that hopped on a train back to the burbs where I showered off the London grime and tumbled in to bed. Phew.

London

As promised, I went down to London this past weekend. It was a completely insane weekend and I was totally zonked by Sunday evening. I got up super-early on Saturday morning and took the 7:30 train, getting to town about 9. I went out to Marble Arch to have my eyebrows threaded - without success. My mom found this website, where I then found some places that did threading. Apparently it's popular enough in London that you have to make an appt 2 weeks (!) in advance. But not so popular that there are walk-in places all over the city, a la NYC... And there aren't any places out near us - I'll just have to plan further ahead next time.

I went to Liberty next and found some glorious fabric - I bought two small pieces that I'm going to work in to various projects. The guy who sold me the fabric was a real prizewinner - he'd hit every branch on the gay tree when he fell out of it, and he was wearing a (beautifully handmade) shirt with a v. busy Liberty floral pattern, accompanied by a tie of the same pattern. It was...eye catching.

Then it was off to Covent Garden to check out the lunch place that my physio recommended - it's called Food For Thought and was quite yummy.

I also managed to find a little courtyard (Neal's Yard) just north of CG, where I had a pedicure. Lovely. And then I bought a pair of black Birkenstocks because my black teva flip-flops have given up and are no longer fit for public wear. So I got these, in black. And am in the process of breaking them in.


Next, I took my mom's recommendation to check out Little Venice. I took a walking tour with a fantastic guide, met a new friend named Robin (if you're reading this, email me!), and took a boat ride. Here's our guide, singing to us:


And here's one of the views of Little Venice.


And another one.



And at the end of the boat ride, PIRATES!


Phew...it was a busy day. More tomorrow.

Wimbledon

John's in London tonight, so I've parked myself in front of the tv for some awesome Wimbledon. The sun is finally shining and there were some fantastic rallies and upsets. I may have to find a cafe with a tv tomorrow afternoon...

We watched An Inconvenient Truth last night - it's something you should see, if you haven't. Al Gore is passionate about the damage we're doing to the environment, and he's got quite a pulpit to shout his message from. I've found a noticeable difference between the attitudes in the UK and in the US - everyone here is SO much more aware of the damage we've done to the environment and there's a much greater willingness to change our behavior to reverse the damage.

Red, White And Blue ...and Pink!

In honor of the 4th, here's a picture that my dad took:


And when I got home from the (mercifully short) meeting tonight, Mark presented me with some '4th of July flowers'. They're GORGEOUS. The light wasn't ideal but I wanted to post them, so here they are.

Leftovers!

I'm still working on the leftovers from our bbq on Sunday - we managed to find a small window of sunny weather and we fired up the grill! We ended up with 3 Americans and 4 Brits (all of whom were very gracious about the celebrating rebels), and lots of potato salad.

No, it's not going to turn into a recipe blog, but my grandma's potato salad is SO good that it needs sharing.

Thanks, Mom, for the recipe - I hope it's in time for any last minute 4th of July potato salad crises! Happy 4th to all the 'mericans in attendance! Tomorrow, rather than watching fireworks, I will be at the Bury Bach Choir annual meeting. AND to add insult to injury, we got an email from the NY office today reminding us that all the US offices would be closed tomorrow. Bah.

Enjoy the potato salad, anyway.

Ingredients:
*Potatoes (I used about 4 small potatoes per person)
*a BIG blob of Hellmann's mayo (don't use the other stuff)
*1 tbs red wine vinegar
*1/2 tsb dry mustard (or 1.5 tbs of dijon)
*A small white onion
*Parsley to garnish
*salt & pepper to season (I salt the 'tater water and find that's about all I need)

Boil the potatoes until they're tender, then drain and cool most of the way. Finely chop the onion, and mix with the mayo, vinegar and mustard. Toss with the potatoes, and serve with the parsley on top. You can substitute balsamic vinegar if you don't have red wine vinegar, but it turns everything a mocha-y color.

I'm going to ping down to London on Saturday to noodle around for the day - if anyone's around and wants to meet up, drop me a comment! I'm definitely headed for the Tate Modern to see the new exhibit and I think I'm going to venture further off the beaten path than I usually go - there's a limit to how many times I need to walk through Hyde Park (lovely though it is...). Suggestions gladly taken!